Take your seat inside the Mavericks' champagne-filled flight back to Dallas

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Twitter / @mcuban

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban tweeted this picture of him posing with the NBA championship trophy while on the team's flight home from Miami on Monday morning. The Mavs defeated the Heat to win the franchise's first title.

AT 34,000 FEET ABOVE LOUISIANA — In seat 10F on the chartered flight home from Miami, Mark Cuban sat with disheveled hair and the look of somebody who had not been to sleep.

In 10D next to him sat the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy — gleaming like it always does.

“Best seat-mate I’ve ever had,” he said. “Ever.”

And by the way, Mr. Cuban was enjoying a cigar (not a Cuban). It wasn’t lit, of course, in compliance with FAA regulations and because the Mavericks’ owner doesn’t like cigars. “But it’s what you do in situations like this,” he said.

You get in touch with your inner Red Auerbach, even if the victory cigar isn’t smoked.

The hours after the Mavericks won the NBA championship at American Airlines Arena in Miami were a blur. Cuban said his biggest fear was that he would forget important details about the night’s celebration.

It started with a wild party at a Miami Beach hotspot. The champagne flowed as most of the players, Cuban and a lot of the staff reveled in the South Florida heat and humidity.

For weeks in the NBA playoffs, coaches and players and staff members had been working on minimal sleep and maximum adrenaline. When the buses were ready for boarding at 9 a.m. Miami time for the trip to the airport Monday morning, there still wasn’t any sleep had by most Mavericks.

It didn’t matter one bit. Everybody was giddy, drunk on the moment if not something a bit stronger as the police escort took the buses to Miami International.

The first champagne bottle was uncorked on the plane at 10:05 a.m. Shortly after, Bud Lights were opened. Hey, there’s nothing like a good beer buzz early in the morning.

Ten minutes later, the 737 rumbled down the runway and took flight the way the Mavericks did during a sensational two-month run through the playoffs.

The team went 16-5 during that time and, with his hair still stringy and his eyes a bit glazed, Dirk Nowitzki sat in Row 1 of the plane, ready to finally believe that this was reality. He really is an NBA champion.

There’s no way to quantify it, but the Mavericks’ flight home felt different. The coaches read newspapers instead of watching game film on their laptops. The players sat with contented looks. The support staff flitted from seat to seat talking with players and coaches and all the while video cameras rolled and cellphones were getting charged up just so everybody could take more pictures.

“This is unbelievable,” said J.J. Barea, in obvious need of rest but too revved up to even think about closing his eyes.

A steady procession of people — from athletic trainer Casey Smith to radio voice Chuck Cooperstein to videographer Clay Armstrong to the stellar crew of flight attendants — alternated posing with the 2011 championship trophy and taking pictures of others with the heavy, golden hardware.

If the glittery prize could talk, it would have complained about all the fingerprints that were becoming plainly evident on its shiny exterior.

Sitting quietly was Keith Grant, the assistant general manager who started as the Mavericks’ first equipment manager in 1980. He’s been with the organization for three decades and has seen more bad basketball and tough times (like 11- and 13-win seasons back-to-back) than anybody should have to endure.

“And a lot of good times, too,” he said. “Like I told Mr. C [Donald Carter, the original Mavericks owner], it worked out just the way we planned. When we drafted Jason Kidd, we told him to come back in 17 years and we’d finish it off.”

Grant is the only member of the organization who has seen it all, been through it all and can finally smile about it.

“It was absolutely worth it,” he said.

Indeed, everybody on that plane felt different.

They felt like champions.

As the jet floated down and wheels touched concrete at Love Field, applause erupted spontaneously and the team’s psychologist, Don Kalkstein yelled out: “The world champions have landed.”

Peering out the windows, they saw thousands of adoring fans waiting for them.

“If that doesn’t get to you emotionally,” said Jason Kidd, “then nothing will.”

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